


i surrender who i've been for who you are

by supersapphics



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, Poly Rosalie Hale, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27606500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersapphics/pseuds/supersapphics
Summary: Rosalie does not like the new girl, Bella Swan. In fact, she doesn't want anything to do with her.Of course, it just so happens that Edward can't read Bella's mind, which means Rosalie has to befriend the new girl to make sure she's not a weird slayer type.(Falling in love with the new girl was NOT part of the plan).
Relationships: Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale, Rosalie Hale/Bella Swan
Comments: 26
Kudos: 104





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to mia for being the biggest rosella fan i know 💖

  
  
  


Rosalie picked up a french fry and stared at it in disgust. “What is this?” she asked Emmett. “They expect children to eat this?”

“It’s a fry, babe,” Emmett answered, sounding amused. He usually sounds amused when he talks to her, although he’s the only one who doesn’t sound condescending at the same time. “You’ve seen it every single day for the past four years.” 

“Well, every time I see one, it disgusts me all over again.” Rosalie tossed the fry back onto her plastic tray to join the rest of her untouched food. She didn’t understand why her family bothered to buy lunch from the cafeteria everyday - to keep up appearances, sure, but was it really worth it? It seemed such a waste.

That’s when she noticed both Alice and Edward staring openly at another table on the other side of the room. Curious (and wanting an excuse to do something other than pretend to eat), she followed their gaze and saw a table with several junior year students seated at it. She recognized most of them (it was difficult not to, considering how small the population of Forks High School was), but she didn’t understand what was supposed to be so interesting about them.

Oh, wait. She didn’t recognize one of the students after all. She was very pale - almost as pale as Rosalie and her family, interestingly enough - with long, thick chestnut hair. She was pretty, but there wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about her - she was dressed plainly, her face bare of makeup - pretty much the exact opposite of Rosalie herself. What about this stranger was capturing her siblings’ attention so deeply? Was it just the fact that she was a new addition to their tiny school?

“What is it?” she asked, in a voice too quiet for human ears, looking between Alice and Edward.

“That girl…” Alice murmured, and then her voice trailed off and she contributed nothing else.

“Yes? What about her?” Rosalie asked impatiently. She loved her sister, she really did, but that didn’t mean Alice never annoyed her. Actually, she did so pretty frequently.

Edward looked like he was about to respond, but then the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. Emmett was the first to leap to his feet, a happy gleam in his eyes; he had gym class next, his favorite. Her other siblings looked less enthused, which Rosalie couldn’t blame them for; they’d been repeating high school on an annual basis since the 1970s, and there were only so many times you could stand to hear the phrase “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” before you wanted to go feral.

Rosalie glanced between Edward and Alice again, hoping one of them would explain before they had to leave, but both of them shook their heads at her and then pushed their way gracefully through the crowd of other students, vanishing from her view. She huffed out a frustrated breath, hating how everyone in this family always left her out of the loop. Just because she didn’t bring any special powers with her from her human life, didn’t mean she wasn’t valuable to this family, for fuck’s sake.

As usual, Emmett was the only one to notice how upset she looked. “Babe,” he said quietly, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. “They probably just wanted to wait until after school when we can tell everyone else.”

“Sure.” Rosalie rolled her eyes at first, but then she realized that, as usual, Emmett was also the only one bothering with an attempt to cheer her up, so she forced a smile and stood on tiptoe to press a kiss to her husband’s cheek. “Thanks, hon. Have fun in gym class.”

“And I hope you enjoy government class. Want me to carry you?” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she couldn’t help it; she giggled a little bit, the way she only did when she was in Emmett’s presence. 

“Well...I suppose the hallways are probably empty by now. Go ahead.”

“My pleasure, milady.” Emmett effortlessly scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the empty cafeteria, then, after double checking that the hallways were fully empty, broke into vampiric speed. A mere two seconds later, he deposited her outside the door of her government class, pressed a goodbye kiss to her cheek, and then whooshed away before she could fake blink.

Rosalie smiled after him before opening the classroom door and slipping into her seat mere moments for the bell rang. Maybe the rest of her family didn’t appreciate her the way she deserved, but she did have a pretty fantastic husband.

  
  


Once Carlisle arrived home from the hospital, however, Rosalie’s good mood vanished and was replaced once more with impatience and frustration. Edward and Alice’s abilities were their best way of keeping the family safe, and she didn’t appreciate being kept in the figurative dark.

“Relax, Rose,” Edward told her, rolling his eyes at her from across the room. “No one intentionally kept you in the dark. I just wanted to do some research before I told everyone the news.”

Rosalie ignored his jab about calming down. “And that news is…?”

“There’s a new student at Forks High School,” Edward announced for Carlisle and Emse’s benefit. “A 17 year old girl, in my year. Her name is Isabella Swan, she’s Chief Swan’s daughter.”

“Chief Swan is a good man,” said Carlisle. “Although I wasn’t aware he had children.”

Edward nodded. “She used to live with her mom in Phoenix, but moved here yesterday. And...strangely, I can’t read her thoughts. Her mind is completely closed to me.”

Everyone gaped at him. “At _all_?” Esme asked, clearly shocked.

“At all,” Edward confirmed. “And…” He turned to Alice.

“My visions of her are a bit blurry,” said Alice. “I can only make out vague bits and pieces.”

Rosalie sank down onto the nearby chaise lounge. “So you’re saying, the new girl in school could be a massive threat to us and we’d never be able to see it coming?”

“There’s nothing to indicate she’s a threat,” Alice protested immediately. “If she harbored any ill will towards us, I would be able to see that right away.”

That did make Rosalie feel slightly better, but only just. “This just sounds incredibly precarious. We’ll have no warning whatsoever if she decides to do something to us!”

“There’s no indi -” Alice began again.

“You say that _now,”_ Rosalie interrupted, “but your visions can change in an instant based on someone’s decisions!”

“Rose,” Carlisle cut in, already breaking out the soothing tones. “I’m sure this won’t be a problem for us whatsoever. Yes, it’s a bit inconvenient that we can’t ‘cheat’ the way we do with the rest of the Forks population, but Alice’s visions _will_ kick in if Isabella Swan makes any decisions regarding our family, and that will give us all the warning we need. But I honestly don’t believe we have anything to worry about in the first place. Edward can attest that although most of the students find you and your siblings, ah, ‘strange’, that that is the extent of their thought process and it never escalates beyond that. No one has ever pursued finding out more about us. Not in any of the places we’ve lived.”

It was too much of a coincidence that as Carlisle spoke, a sense of calm enveloped the chaise lounge where Rosalie was seated. She turned to glare at her ‘twin’.

“That’s not necessary, Jazz. I already know that what Carlisle is saying makes sense.”

Jasper held up his hands in surrender. “Just trying to help, sis.”

Rosalie ignored him, turning to look at Carlisle again. “Shouldn’t we at least try to keep an eye on this Isabella girl? Just to make sure she’s not... _too_ suspicious? It just, it would make me feel a lot better.”

There was a long silence while everyone apparently thought it over. Finally, Edward piped back up. “Sure. Maybe Alice can try talking to her tomorrow.”

Alice laughed. “Actually, I think you’re the better option, Edward.”

“Me?” Edward repeated, sounding surprised. “Aren’t teenage girls more comfortable talking with a, a girlfriend?”

“More comfortable, maybe, but if we’re looking for someone to be more convincing, it definitely needs to be you,” said Alice with a smirk.

Edward looked around the room, looking so genuinely confused that everyone had to stifle a chuckle behind their hands, even Rosalie. 

“Oh c’mon, Edward, you read minds!” Alice finally explained. “You have to know how every girl - and possibly several boys - in the school feels about you!”

“Well, yes, I...I do know that, but...you know I’m not really great at talking to girls.”

“Yes, we all know you’re gay,” Rosalie interrupted, rolling her eyes. “That doesn’t mean you can’t talk to girls. Just long enough to figure out what she’s thinking about us and what she intends to do about it.”

“Fine,” Edward muttered. “I’ll talk to Isabella.”

“Thank you.” Rosalie finally felt calm, or at least calm _er_. She gestured for Emmett to join her on the chaise lounge and he acquiesced immediately. Alice walked across the room to join Jasper and Edward disappeared up into his room to do whatever he did when he was by himself, not like Rosalie cared. She was just relieved there was a plan of action in place about this Isabella girl. And she also hoped Alice would be able to nip this entire situation in the bud before Isabella had a chance to ruin anything for their family.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Rosalie decided to skip the lunch line and go straight to her table. She wasn’t in the mood today to pretend to eat on top of pretending to blink and breathe. 

Emmett and Jasper were already seated, discussing something about American football that she couldn’t care less about. When she took her seat, Emmett lifted one hand and placed it on her thigh in greeting. Rosalie smiled at him and flipped open the newest copy of Vogue, which she always kept in her purse.

She’d only perused the first couple of pages when she noticed Edward and Alice entering the cafeteria out of her peripheral vision. She waited impatiently while her siblings went through the line to purchase their wholly unnecessary food.

“Really? A cheeseburger?” she demanded when Alice set her tray down across the table. “Was that really needed?”

“This is what 17 year olds eat,” Alice said cheerfully. “Just a moment ago I passed someone eating pepperoni pizza dipped in ranch dressing! It looked pretty appetizing, to be honest with you.”

Rosalie gave her the best unimpressed look she could muster. “You’re just going to throw it away again in 45 minutes.”

“Is there a reason you’re so angry about me buying a cheeseburger?” Alice asked, sounding more bemused than irritated.

“She’s annoyed because getting in the lunch line delayed me telling everyone how it went with Isabella,” Edward explained, lips twitching.

“Great, we’re on the important topic now,” Rosalie interrupted before anyone could comment further. “How did it go?”

Edward hesitated. “Not so good,” he said at last. “I mean, we talked for a little bit but she didn’t really seem...receptive to me. So I couldn’t really get her to tell me anything important.”

“Wait,” Emmett said, smirking widely. “This Swan girl is the first woman in history to turn you down?”

“Not the first,” Edward disagreed. “But...she does join a rather short list.”

“What did you say to her?” Rosalie demanded, not amused with her husband’s joke.

“Nothing out of the ordinary. I just asked her how she’s enjoying Forks, she said fine, and that she prefers to be called Bella, and so far she’s made friends with Angela Weber.”

“And?” Rosalie insisted. “Then what?”

“Well, not much more. I detected then what was preventing Bella from...being receptive to me...and, well…” He exchanged an uncertain glance with Alice, whose eyes widened in comprehension. 

“Oh!” Alice gasped, and then she grinned widely.

“Spit it out!” Rosalie hissed, about ready to smack her palms on the table.

“Bella is a lesbian,” Edward explained, “and she...well, she has a crush on you, Rose.”

There was a moment of surprised silence from the rest of the table. Rosalie looked over at Emmett, who was already staring at her with an almost thoughtful look on his face. Not sure what that meant, Rosalie turned back to Edward.

“She said that? In those exact words?”

“Not entirely. I was asking her about what friends she’d made so far, hoping she’d mention what her friends have told her about us. She mentioned Angela Weber, and then she said, and I quote, ‘Angela has another friend named Jessica Stanley who immediately tried setting me up with some of the boys sitting at our table. Talk about awkward, right? I was feeling awkward so I blurted out that I’m a lesbian’. Then I asked her if that was actually true or if she merely said so in order to ward off her classmates. She confirmed it’s true. Afterward I asked her if she has her eye on anyone yet - perhaps it was too forward, but I thought if I raised that topic, she’d mention if the other students had warned her against having an interest in us. And then - she mentioned you, Rose. She blushed the way humans do when they’re embarrassed and asked me if you were my biological sister. When I said no, she seemed quite relieved.”

“Well, did you tell her I’m married?” Rosalie asked.

“She didn’t ask.”

“You could have still mentioned it!”

“Well...considering that I didn’t manage to find out from her what she thinks about us, I didn’t think it...prudent to crush her with the truth,” said Edward.

“So now you want Rosalie to take advantage of Bella’s crush on her in order to figure out what Bella thinks of the rest of us?” said Jasper wryly, speaking up for the first time. 

“Don’t worry, Jazz,” Alice assured him before anyone else could speak up. “It’s going to end up fine. More than fine, actually.” She smiled conspiratorially at Rosalie, who just glared back at her.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, lunch period is about to end, so you could probably catch her at her car before she leaves this afternoon,” said Edward. “She drives that rusty orange truck.”

“But what am I supposed to  _ say  _ to her?!” Rosalie fumed. 

“You’re pretty good at charming people, babe,” Emmett pointed out. “I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to talk to her.”

The bell rang then. Rosalie leapt to her feet and stuffed her copy of Vogue back into her purse before giving her siblings the most withering look she could manage on command. Everyone but Emmett flinched a little and at least had the grace to look abashed, but Rosalie didn’t stick around to hear their halfhearted apologies. She just spun on her heel and stomped away. As she did, she couldn’t help but glance secretively over her shoulder - and saw Bella staring after her as she left.

  
  


After having spent her last class of the day coming up with different ways to break the ice with Bella, Rosalie still wasn’t sure this was going to work. Talking to humans was  _ hard.  _ What on earth did they have in common?! Nothing, that’s what! What was she going to start the conversation with? Asking Bella if she enjoyed her lunch? What makeup brand Bella liked the best?

Rosalie huffed out a frustrated breath as the bell rang, signaling the end of her last class for the day. Now she had to go talk to Bella. Why on earth was this task falling on her?! she raged to herself as she stalked toward the parking lot, barely noticing the half-admiring, half-terrified glances her classmates tossed her way (she saw those everyday, besides). She wanted to protect her family and make sure the one - one! - exception to Edward’s mind reading wasn’t posing a threat to her loved ones; she’d done the most work, and all she’d asked is that Edward talk to Bella for five minutes and figure out she wasn’t a dangerous slayer wannabe. And Edward couldn’t even do that one thing. Ugh. He was useless.

She entered the parking lot and looked around to locate Bella’s truck. She spotted it right away - it looked unlike any of the other cars in the lot. And Bella was just approaching the vehicle from the opposite side from where Rosalie currently stood. Sighing, Rosalie shook out her hair, pasted a charming smile on her face, and strutted across the lot.

“Hi! You’re Bella, right?” she asked when she reached the truck. “I’m Rosalie Hale, I’m a senior.”

Bella promptly dropped her car keys. Rosalie watched as Bella flushed an extremely bright red and crouched down to pick up the keys, mumbling apologies the entire time. Rosalie wasn’t quite sure what Bella was apologizing for - weren’t all humans clumsy and embarrassing? 

“I am...I’m Bella,” Bella said when she finally straightened up, keys in hand. “Can I - I’m sorry, can I help you with something?”

“No.” Rosalie fought against her natural inclination to frown at stupid questions. “I just wanted to introduce myself. We don’t get many new students here.”

“Oh! Well, hi...hi, Rosalie. Thanks for welcoming me.” Bella was blushing again. It was kind of ridiculous, but also kind of...cute. The second the thought entered her mind, Rosalie shook it away. What the hell? She was a married woman. And she didn’t fancy humans. 

“Yes, well…” Rosalie bit her lower lip. What was she supposed to do now? Desperate, she looked around, trying to think of anything else she could mention, when she suddenly heard the answer: through Bella’s stomach giving a massive rumble.

While Rosalie saw the noise as a lifesaver, Bella looked mortified beyond reason.

“Oh...my...god,” Bella muttered. “I’m sorry, I’m - I skipped breakfast because I woke up late and I didn’t really like anything they were serving for lunch, so - ”

“Oh, well, what a coincidence!” Rosalie interrupted. “I was just thinking of trying out this new diner they opened on the highway. What do you think? My treat?”

Bella kind of looked like she was going to pass out, but she managed out to squeak out an “Okay, sure” that was only 90% air.

“I’ll drive us, since I know where it is,” Rosalie continued. “My brother can pick me up from the diner later.” 

Bella chose nodding over speaking this time and walked noiselessly (or, as much as one could, as a human) over to the passenger side of her abysmal truck.


	3. Chapter 3

“You’re not going to order anything?” Bella asked, peering at Rosalie over the top of her menu. 

“No,” answered Rosalie simply, and then a voice that sounded a lot like Emmett’s spoke up in her head and pointed out such a short answer might be seen as brusque or even rude, so she quickly added, “I’m on a kind of...liquid diet.”

A weird look flashed across Bella’s face, gone again so quickly it’s like Bella had realized what face she was making and had hastened to suppress it. 

Rosalie looked at her. “What is it?” She wasn’t used to this anymore, this game of guessing and intrigue that was always played amongst humans. With her family it was always clear what everyone was thinking, even without Edward’s help.

“I was just - I’m sorry, it’s a bit rude. I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“No, it’s all right,” Rosalie urged. She was genuinely curious now. Were all humans this interesting, or was it just Bella? (And when had she started thinking of Bella as interesting?”

“I was just thinking...I’m actually not surprised if you’re on a diet. It must be difficult to maintain a figure like that.” Bella spoke the entire sentence with her gaze focused intently on her menu.

“Oh.” Rosalie could understand now what Bella was thinking. She herself had been quite the beauty even in her human days (this wasn’t her being arrogant, it was simply stating facts) but becoming a vampire had gone a long way to make her look beyond dazzling. It was an evolutionary tactic, so to speak, as a way to make her extra appealing to the prey she hunted. And even though her figure was perfect for this very reason, and despite the fact that she heard compliments constantly, she still couldn’t help but preen at the implication of Bella’s remark. The idea that she couldn’t care what a random human thought of her, especially since she was married, didn’t occur to her.

“It’s not a diet,” Rosalie continued, knowing she had to say something. “It’s just that I...have a rather sensitive stomach and have to watch what I eat to avoid becoming ill. So my father - I mean, he’s a doctor, and he gives me these healthy smoothies that my stomach can tolerate, and they give me the nutrients I need too.” She hoped her rambling made sense.  _ Why am I doing this again?  _ she moaned to herself. She could barely have a conversation with this girl, she had to lie and stretch the truth so much. 

But Bella appeared to have bought Rosalie’s ridiculous story. “Are you sure you’re ok eating here then?” she asked, peering at Rosalie with worried eyes. “I’d feel bad eating in front of you, knowing you can’t have anything -”

“It’s fine,” Rosalie interrupted her, hoping her voice sounded reassuring and not irritated. She wasn’t actually annoyed, but various members of her family loved telling her that she had something called resting bitch face, and somehow this affliction also carried over to her voice, apparently. Which was a roundabout of saying that she often sounded bitchy even when she didn’t mean to. 

“Ok,” said Bella softly. “Ok then. Well, thanks for bringing me here. It looks nice.” Bella turned in the booth to look around the diner, giving Rosalie the opportunity to study  _ her.  _ Bella really was pretty, and naturally so - it was clear she didn’t put in any effort into her appearance. Her clothes looked fine - they were clean and in the current style - but were nothing that would draw attention, and her face was bare of makeup. She wore no jewelry, no product in her hair. Far be it from Rosalie to criticize these things - she was always dressed in the latest designer fashions, her hair always blow dried and sleek with the most expensive products available. She’d never even considered the idea of not putting this effort in - her pride was too important to her. But with Bella, it didn’t seem as if is lack of pride was the reason behind her simple appearance; it just seemed as if dressing up wasn’t something Bella considered important.

Bella really was quite interesting after all. Not just necessarily because she didn’t wear eyeshadow or carry a Louis Vitton purse, but because she seemed entirely different from any other teenage girl Rosalie had known in the last 70 years. Rosalie may not be able to read thoughts like Edward could, but she did possess supernatural hearing like all other vampires, and she could overhear most of the conversations happening around Forks High School on a daily basis. Most teenagers nowadays talked about homework, losing their virginity, who else had lost their virginity recently, and whose parents were out of town that weekend. 

Based on the past several minutes she had spent with the human girl, Bella seemed to think about: exactly how fierce a shade of red her face could turn, whether her hair should cover her face or if she should shove it off her shoulder again, and whether it was rude of her to eat in front of Rosalie while Rosalie ate nothing.

Quite interesting after all.

“Have you decided what you’d want, dear?” the waitress, a grandmotherly looking type, asked, flipping open the top page of her notepad as she approached Bella’s side of the booth.

“Um.” Bella clearly hadn’t examined the menu long enough to make an informed decision. She ducked her head guiltily and then pointed to what looked like the first thing on the menu. 

The waitress leaned forward slightly to see what Bella’s finger was pointing at and scribbled it down. Then she looked over at Rosalie, and promptly did a double take. Rosalie sat calmly, not moving, allowing the waitress the time she needed to recover from the initial shock, get used to Rosalie’s unnatural beauty and then to reassure herself that the sense of  _ wrongness  _ she’d received upon her first glimpse of Rosalie’s face had just been an overreaction, a mistake; a trick of the eyes.

“Anything for you, dearie?” the waitress asked at last. Rosalie’s eyes flicked in Bella’s direction and found Bella staring curiously at the waitress. No doubt she’d noticed the woman’s strange reaction and was wondering as to the cause. Rosalie cursed under her breath. Great - just what she needed.

“Nothing, thank you.” When the waitress faltered, Rosalie bit back the sigh that longed to escape and amended: “Just a refill for my water, please.” She indicated the glass of water the waitress had brought her when they’d first been seated.

“Coming right up.” The waitress walked away and Bella stared after her for a moment, then returned her gaze to Rosalie.

“She was kind of weird around you.”

Rosalie gave the most offhand shrug she was capable of. “A lot of people are.”

Bella didn’t respond to that, just stared pensively back, like she was trying to dissect what Rosalie had just said and analyze her findings. Finally she seemed to give up; she placed her menu to the side, then leaned forward on her elbows as if she wanted a better look at Rosalie. Rosalie could tell Bella was preparing to ask her a series of questions - there was an inquisitive gleam to her eye to betray her. Wanting to avoid that as long as possible, Rosalie quickly cut Bella off with a query of her own: “So, how are you liking Forks so far?” 

Bella sat back, clearly surprised not only by the question itself but also by Rosalie’s complete lack of segue. Before she could answer, the waitress returned with a water pitcher and refilled Rosalie’s glass - or at least part of it, since Rosalie had only been able to force a few swallows down before.

"Your meal will be right out,” she told Bella, carefully not looking on Rosalie’s direction this time.

“Thank you,” Bella murmured. She waited until the waitress was gone before answering Rosalie’s question. 

“I like Forks just fine, I suppose. It’s a bit….” She hesitated then, peeking up at Rosalie tentatively. Rosalie stared at her in surprise, noting to herself that she’d never met a human before who put this much stock in other people’s opinions. It’s like she didn’t want to say anything that could possibly offend Rosalie, which was odd, because they were practically strangers; why would Bella care so much if her opinions offended Rosalie?

“You mustn’t worry about offending me with your opinion of Forks,” Rosalie told her, falling silent when the waitress approached yet again and set a plate containing two grilled cheese sandwiches and a pile of french fries in the middle of the table. She refilled Bella’s half-empty glass of water and then vanished once more, again not glancing in Rosalie’s direction even slightly.

Rosalie waited for Bella to dig into her food - she had mentioned before how hungry she was, after all - but Bella instead chose to stare at Rosalie, biting her lower lip in obvious nervousness.

“You don’t need my permission to start eating,” she pointed out, perhaps a bit more sharply than necessary; again, it was a case where her voice came out sounding more irritated than she actually felt.

To her surprise, Bella didn’t seem offended, but instead smirked and picked up one of the fries. “Thanks ever so much for letting me know.”

Rosalie found herself smirking back (she wouldn’t have believed it if you’d told her an hour earlier). “And like I told you earlier, you don’t need my permission to tell me your true feelings about Forks, either.”

“You won’t be offended if I confess that I’m not in love with your hometown?”

“Forks isn’t my hometown,” Rosalie replied without thinking, and then could have kicked herself. Now why on earth had she said that? She supposed lying wouldn’t have been a good idea either, because Bella could easily have asked another classmate how long the Cullens had lived in town; but she hadn’t needed to tell the exact truth, either. Now it’s too late. Goddammit.

“No? Sorry, I was under the impression that I was the only newcomer in this town.” Bella had demolished half the pile of fries by now.

Rosalie forced herself not to grimace. “No, not quite. My family and I have lived here for two years now.”  _ Goddammit, goddammit _ , she thought again. How had she allowed the simple act of Bella smirking at her to distract her so badly? 

  
  


“You’re sure you don’t want me to take you back to your car?” Bella asked as she stood outside her own, her hand hovering over the handle to the driver’s side door.

“I don’t have a car back at the school, I come everyday with my siblings,” Rosalie explained. “I’ll just have one of them pick me up here, it’s fine.”

Bella frowned again, looking up at the sky, which promised imminent rain. She looked nervous, and guilty for leaving Rosalie here alone. Rosalie wasn’t sure how she could read all the expressions on the human girl’s face so well, but they were as clear to her as the words on a page.

“If you’re really sure,” said Bella, finally opening the door and sliding into the driver’s seat. She glanced up at Rosalie again, a worried frown still tugging down her soft mouth. Rosalie frowned herself, wondering why she’d felt it necessary to refer to Bella’s mouth as soft.

“I am. Thanks for...well, it was nice today. I had a good time.” Rosalie wasn’t even lying about that. The words surprised her as she said them, in fact, but they were true. 

Bella’s cheeks flamed. “M-me too. I’ll see you...tomorrow, I guess?”

“Sure.” Rosalie forced herself to smile; internally she was beginning to panic. 

“Bye then…” Bella seemed to be waiting for something, but Rosalie had no idea what it was, nor did she have enough presence of mind to concentrate on it right now. She was too busy trying to frantically plan ahead to how she could get herself out of this mess.

Bella cleared her throat loudly and turned on the truck’s startlingly loud ignition, which brought Rosalie back to the present. She took a step back and waved at Bella as the human girl drove away. The last thing she saw before Bella’s truck disappeared out of the diner parking lot and back onto the highway, was the sight of Bella’s eyes drifting up to the rearview mirror, looking back for one last glance.


End file.
